From tomorrow, China legally requires foreign vessels entering what it considers to be its territorial waters to notify Beijing, creating what some fear is a “ticking time bomb” for conflict in the South China Sea.
The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress in April amended China’s Maritime Traffic Safety Law (海上交通安全法) to require all foreign vessels entering Chinese territorial waters to inform maritime authorities, carry relevant permits, and submit to Chinese command and supervision.
It also gives Beijing the authority to instruct foreign vessels that “threaten the safety of Chinese internal or territorial waters” to leave and to exercise the “right of immediate pursuit.”
Photo: AP
According to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, territorial waters are defined as the 12 nautical miles (22.2km) of sea extending from terrestrial territory, with the “right of innocent passage” reserved for vessels moving through territorial waters in a manner that does not threaten the security of the coastal state.
The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said in a statement that the new reporting requirement would apply to all submersibles, nuclear vessels and ships carrying radioactive or harmful substances, as well as any foreign vessels deemed to “endanger the maritime traffic safety of China.”
Reports should include the vessel’s name, call sign, current position, next port of call, estimated course and speed, nature of goods and loading capacity, it said.
Other nations are afraid that China’s exploitation of the law to expand the scope of “gray zone” conflict could become a ticking time bomb, said Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), director of the Division of Defense Strategy and Resources at the Institute of National Defense and Strategic Research.
Beijing considers its maritime jurisdiction to encompass more than just its coastal waters, Su said.
This would include the 12 nautical miles of sea surrounding the artificial reefs it has constructed in the South China Sea, giving Beijing an excuse to respond to freedom of navigation exercises carried out by other nations, he said.
Taiwan Democracy Watch specialist Sung Cheng-en (宋承恩) said that he expects the impact on the Taiwan Strait to be slight.
Under the UN convention, waters between Taiwan and China are considered an international strait through which freedom of navigation “solely for the purpose of continuous and expeditious transit of the strait” is guaranteed.
However, Sung agreed that the amendment could affect US operations in the South China Sea, depending on how China’s coast guard chooses to enforce the law.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification